Page 152 of Star Claimed Omega
SOLEIL
Soleil braced herself against the trembling walls of theVermilion Claw, her heart jack-hammering.
Her eyes were on the view outside as it pulsed with the violet-gold streak of Santi’s ethereal figure weaving through space.
Her breath caught, anguish and longing for her lover twisting in her gut.
He was still alive. Still fighting and still chasing their ship.
Even though her father was trying to murder him.
She twisted and lunged toward the weapons console, where Varnok stood, eyes blazing, fingers poised over the manual cannon release.
‘Stop thisfokkin’ cat and mouse game now,’ she snarled at him.
Varnok didn’t bother to glance at her. The mad glint in his crimson-gold irises was beyond reason, beyond redemption.
‘He’s nothing but fodder,’ Varnok growled. ‘Handsome, maybe, but never worth your rage.’
She grabbed his arm, yanking it back with all her strength. ‘You’ll kill him!’
Varnok roared and turned, shoving her so hard she flew backward.
Her body hit the floor with a sickening thud, air forced from her lungs.
The breath fled from her chest as her ribs screamed, and her vision faltered.
The metallic tinge of blood pooled at the corner of her mouth.
She stayed down for a second, eyes locked on the monster before her;her father.
A twisted titan of searing red energy cloaked him now, his body pulsing with malformed wolfish rage, horn-like bone ridges over his brow, fur patchy and scorched, his snout elongated and cracked with glowing fissures.
He was no longer a man. Nor a wolf. He was an unholy revenant carved in fire and lunacy.
In that moment, Soleil knew.
There was no bringing him back, no soft corner of her father’s spirit left to beseech.
Her tormentor’s sanity was receding into a deranged, vengeance-laced beast.
Her hand slipped beneath her coat, fingers curling around the bomb in her pocket.
For a beat, her mind raced through all the ways she might still escape.
Then her breath slowed. A stillness took her.
For there were no more chances, no more running.
She stood on shaking legs, blood seeping down her temple.
Varnok was snarling at he viewscreen, laughing manically as he flung another missile at her lover.
She’d had enough.
Soleil inched to a console and tapped in a series of commands, overriding security protocols with herRed Queendesignation.
She also sent out a subliminal message aimed at Miral, the Signet’s Synth AI.
